Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter dies at 100

Former President Jimmy Carter died Sunday afternoon at the age of 100.

The Carter Center confirmed that Carter died peacefully and surrounded by his family at his home in Plains, Georgia. At 100, Carter was the longest-living president in U.S. history.

A lifelong Atlanta Braves fan, he was the first president to welcome a Super Bowl champion to the White House (the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1980, who visited alongside the World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates).

Carter also was president in 1980 when he announced that the United States would boycott the Olympic Summer Games in Moscow to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. More than 60 nations ultimately boycotted the Games, including West Germany, Japan and China. Writing in his 2010 book, “White House Diary,” Carter observed that in hindsight, with respect to the U.S. team, “one of my most difficult decisions was supporting the boycott of the Summer Olympics.”

In his presidential memoir, “Keeping Faith,” Carter also discussed the choice not to send a U.S. team to Moscow. The boycott of the Moscow Olympics led to a retaliatory Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics that included more than a dozen countries.

“For the Soviet Union, the Moscow Olympics was much more than a sporting event,” Carter wrote. “They saw it as a triumph for communism and a vivid demonstration to other nations of the world that the Soviets represented the true spirit of the ancient Olympics.”

After the boycott was formalized with a vote by the U.S. Olympic Committee, Carter invited the entire American team to the White House, where each athlete got a brief handshake, posed for a picture with the president, and received the Congressional Gold Medal.

A moment of silence was held Sunday night before the Atlanta Falcons’ game at the Washington Commanders in honor of Carter.

Falcons owner Arthur Blank said he was “deeply saddened by the loss of [his] dear friend and role model, President Jimmy Carter” in a statement earlier Sunday.

“He was a great American, a proud Georgian and an inspirational global humanitarian,” Blank said.

A statement on the passing of President Jimmy Carter from Arthur M. Blank pic.twitter.com/7EYDeN15NS

— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) December 29, 2024

Carter (born James Earl Carter Jr.) served one term as U.S. president, from 1977 to 1981. He lived longer after leaving office than any other previous U.S. president, and his legacy is noted by his post-presidency work.

He founded The Carter Center in 1982, a nonprofit, nonpartisan center focused on issues of public policy. Through the center, he worked as an advocate for democracy, human rights, disease prevention and conflict resolution and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Carter also partnered with Habitat for Humanity for more than 30 years.

Carter, who returned to his home state of Georgia after leaving the presidency, attended numerous Braves games, including the final game at Turner Field in October 2016, and was caught on the kiss cam with his longtime wife, Rosalynn, on more than one occasion.

“President Carter was a testament to the best America, and Georgia, can produce,” the Braves said in a statement. “He served both his country and home state with honor his entire life. While the world knew him as a remarkable humanitarian and peacemaker, we knew him as a dedicated Braves fan and we will miss having him in the stands cheering on his Braves.”

Among his other sports-related activities, Carter was a member of the cross country team during his time at the Naval Academy and was also a tennis, track and basketball player in high school. He was also an avid softball player.

Carter grew up in Plains, Georgia, and served in the Navy for seven years before returning to his home state to take over his family’s peanut farm. Carter was a Georgia senator and governor in the 1960s and ’70s before being elected president. He was diagnosed with cancer in August 2015 but announced in early 2016 that he no longer needed treatment.

Carter entered hospice care in February 2023; the Carter Center said that in the wake of a series of short hospital stays he “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.”

Carter married his wife, Rosalynn, in 1946. She died on Nov. 19, 2023, at the age of 96. They are survived by their three sons and a daughter, as well as several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.